An amazingly accurate portrayal of a person with Asperger's.

books:


	• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon Vintage, 2004 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 1444 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

From someone who is autistic...

I doubt my review will be worth anything, what with there being 1,400-plus reviews already. But I thought I should tell of my opinion seeing as I am mildly autistic myself, & have interacted with other autistic beings from all across the spectrum.

I'm sure you already know what this book is focused on: a 15-year-old boy named Christopher, plagued by a case of autism more severe than my own, & he plays the literal-minded narrator. Indeed the author pulls very hard to make Christopher sound like an authentic autistic person, & I can't say he failed. This story is more about him than the murdered dog, his family's turmoil, anything.
& yet I had a very hard time liking Christopher. His character never shines a single moment of empathy for others. Very bluntly he tells his audience of the people surrounding him, but his voice holds such devoid distance as if these people are hollow shells not quite alive. At one point in the story, a torn person pleas for Christopher to hold their hand... just this once, & Christopher refuses apathically.
I strongly dislike being touched, however I will suck it up & allow myself to be touched or even reach out to hug someone if I feel they truly need it.
As much as I know that these are the lines that separate the mild from the severe cases, it still remains hard for me to feel for Christopher knowing that he cannot feel for others beyond himself. (On another note, some people with autism are known to feel physical pain with skin to skin contact. Christopher never mentions such a thing, so it seems clear that he `feels' like me when it comes to touching.)

Despite this stoic nature, the story unfolds in such a way that others' emotions bleed through the pages via bits of dialog & in their simple actions. The situation is a tender one & very raw at its root.
At the same time I found the other characters unlikable as well. While it becomes lucid later, Christ's father seems to cage his son, banning his curiosity. In a turning point of the mystery behind Wellington the poodle's murder, something harsh is revealed about the father that places him in a very ugly light.

- - spoiler - -
As for Christopher's estranged mother, let me spell for you a summary of her explanation letters: `I'm so sorry I had to leave you Christopher, but you must understand that you are an unbearable child. I hated my life & it was all your fault.' Not to mention the fact that she flatly abandoned him in the first place.

But all this ugliness makes for a very raw & potent read. Each of these characters in their flaws feels very real.
& the simplistic, blunt writing style itself feels very fresh & novel.

I just wish people would stop saying `this book is an insight into the autistic mind.'
This book is an insight into ONE autistic mind. We are each very different people. Just from this review you should be able to understand that.

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Not a mystery

I enjoyed this book, and I appreciate that it was written from the perspective of an autistic child. If you are expecting a mystery, however, this is not one.

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Rather interesting piece of work...

I recently read this book because the lower level English classes in my school (I'm in the smarter class) read this as an assignment and I was interested, as I have a friend with the condition (or whatever else you'd like to call it) otherwise known as autism, and he's normal compared to this kid! Still, this book was a very interesting read.

Christopher Boone, a 15 year old Brit, is pretty much a cripple - he has a severe adversion to 2 colours, is superstitious over seeing cars on the way to school to determine his luck, and throws all these random maths and science figures between the actual story. Imagine all the crap his dad has to put up with - it's all within the covers of this book.

Christopher has a mixed style of speaking - he calls people by their "formal names" (Mother and Father - hasn't he ever heard of Mum and Dad?) but often rambles in his sentences about meaningless things (though I liked his explanation on the door problem from game shows).

I'm not going to mention anything else, as pretty much all the other 1,576 (or thereabouts) reviewers have already explained it. So to sum up: Definitely not one of the best books I've read (I don't read much), but I'd recommend it for an out-of-the-ordinary read.

On a slightly-unrelated note, I wonder what Christopher would think of the South Park character Timmy? (He'd probably laugh at him because he's even more crippled than he is!)

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curious incident

Told through the eyes of an autistic boy named Christopher, "The Curious Incident..." feels different than other fiction because of the fresh perspective. The events are mundane, but the narrator's interactions with others make for laugh-out-loud situations.

Christopher can often be maddening, and you empathize for the frustration in those around him. He is totally devoid of emotion or imagination. He's coldly logical and methodical, and has a tendency to sit for hours thinking through math problems. And he's focused like a laser-beam, to the point of being obsessive. He remembers anything. So, Christopher is basically a robot.

None of the characters are flat. His sweet father... with a violent-side. His loving mother, with her lack of morals and inability to deal with conflict.

The portrayal is blunt and doesn't pull punches. This book could have easily had a preachy theme about "autistics are great people once you get to know them..." but luckily it never devolves into that - Christopher's behavior is shown in all it's unpleasant glory. I liked it and would definitely recommend it. 3.5 stars

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An amazingly accurate portrayal of a person with Asperger's.

I was amazed to find that Haddon doesn't actually have Asperger's. His portrayal is spot on. A fascinating and accurate look into the thought processes and experiences of a person with Asperger's.

Stephanie Moulton Sarkis PhD NCC LMHC
Author and Psychotherapist, specializing in ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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